SD can't afford to host Super Bowl

FILE - This artists rendering released on May 13, 2013, by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority and the Minnesota Vikings shows the new Minnesota Vikings stadium. Minneapolis has been awarded the 2018 Super Bowl by NFL owners. The owners rewarded the Vikings for arranging to build a new stadium on the site of the old Metrodome by choosing Minneapolis over New Orleans and Indianapolis. (AP Photo/HKS Sports and Entertainment Group, File)
The Associated Press

FILE - This artists rendering released on May 13, 2013, by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority and the Minnesota Vikings shows the new Minnesota Vikings stadium. Minneapolis has been awarded the 2018 Super Bowl by NFL owners. The owners rewarded the Vikings for arranging to build a new stadium on the site of the old Metrodome by choosing Minneapolis over New Orleans and Indianapolis. (AP Photo/HKS Sports and Entertainment Group, File)

San Diego surely wants and deserves to host its fourth Super Bowl. But does it need to?

Can it afford to?

The answer to the two questions not only is an emphatic “no,” but now that the NFL treats bid-winning cities as the Vandals treated Rome, not only couldn’t we afford one, but given cities now must sell their souls, why would we want one?

Minneapolis recently was “awarded” the 2018 event, and according to a fine piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, all Minnesota had to do to get it -- other than build a new stadium -- was surrender 5,000 lakes.

When San Diego received its first Super Bowl, XXII in 1988, it didn’t have to give the NFL very much other than police protection, etc. Upfront, Minneapolis’ host committee had to pony up $30 million in private pledges to help offset public costs for staging the game.

Thirty million? San Diego can’t even celebrate the 100th anniversary of Balboa Park without botching it, or build fountains at the County Administration Building without needing rental cops to keep kids off the sprinklers.

But that’s nothing. According to the Star Tribune, which acquired the private 153 pages of bid information, there will be:

The local media must “provide significant advertising and promotional time” for the “NFL Experience” leading up to the game, including 20 color pages of free space in leading dailies, four weeks of free promotions on six radio stations and at least 250 live or prerecorded ads.

Local police must furnish, at no cost, anti-counterfeit enforcement teams focusing on tickets and merchandising.

They’ve been asked to play all travel and expenses for an optional “familiarization trip” for 180 people to visit the Twin Cities in advance of the game to inspect the region.

Team hotels must televise the NFL Network for at least a year prior to the game.

If cell phone service at hotels isn’t strong enough, the committee is responsible for erecting a reasonable amount of cellular towers.

There’s more, but why bother?

Can we afford any of this? Can we afford anything?

“I can remember how great it was when I got a free car when I went to a city,” chuckles Jim Steeg, who for 26 years ran Super Bowls for the NFL, his last in 2005.

“I can tell you, it was never anything close to $30 million,” says local businessman and philanthropist Leon Parma, who along with Bob Payne and the late Herb Klein had much to do behind the scenes with San Diego getting its three Super Bowls. “I think they’re probably being conservative now with the $30 million.

“To think, in Super Bowl XXII (1988), we introduced the league to what corporate tents made in revenue. After that, they took them over, and that was a key revenue source for us, because we had a huge cost in expanding the stadium for the game.”